THE OTHER SIDE

To be honest I bought this album because it was for sale. But I don't want to be disrespectful to this lady singer so I have to add I was curious as well. Sally French is on PA for quite some time now but no one ever took the opportunity to review her album so the honour is mine this time.

Because I never heard of her I did a short google search and found out she is a British multi artist who is besides singer also painter and also owns a music school where they teach singing but I didn't find out whether she's teaching herself as well. After listening to the album for a couple of times I'm not surprised about the singing school because this lady knows how to use her voice in various ways and I liked what I heard in most of the songs. I will go through the tracks now.

In the first track Beyond the Sky it becomes obvious why she's sometimes compared with Kate Bush. But it has to be said there are both resemblances and differences. The singing is far more impressive than the song itself, Sally is showing a lot of her singing talents right away in the first opportunity. 3,25*.

Inside the Tower is a longish track with more compositional and instrumental significance than previous one with orchestal harpe as interesting feature. Again variegated singing in this slightly enchanting song. One of the better on this release. 3,5*.

Ophelia is even more captivating because Sally French is singing in a modest way here, lovely and soft. It's alomst like a lullaby so I will have to stay awake here for there are four more songs to come. 3,25*.

My time has come is surprisingly enough an almost rocking track. Surprising because it's the first in this style and it looked like we were all the way going to betreated with semi-classical material. Nice song but I have to admit I like Sally French better in the previous songs. 3*.

Lifting the Veil sounds a lot like the first song especially where the vocals are concerned. 3,25*.

Golden Leaves reveales Sally French at her best in my personal opinion. I already said she could sing in an enchanting way but this song is the best proof of that. Absolutely wonderful ! 3,5*.

The Last Time is a bit of a sad, serious song apparently about a break-up. Not too great this time I'm afraid though the technical vocal performance always remains adequate. 2,75*.

The Key is a nice closer with some more sweet vocals to leave the listener with a satisfied feeling. 3*

Like Ivan Melgar is already stating in the Sally French biography this album is hardly prog, neo or any other kind. Maybe it could indeed have been prog related or crossover but then also borderline. Doesn't really matter to me here. I liked this little journey through the vocal possibilities of a very good female vocalist. Three stars for this and even a bit better (3,2).

2,5 stars, really. I found this CD only recently and I was quite curious about it since it was on PA and labeled as neo prog. But upon hearing it I was wondering why on earth anyone would call it neo prog. Not that this is a bad record, not at all. The Other Side is quite interesting and captivating, but its musical style has very little to do with prog. It is mostly a kind of ambient, new age music, not very dissimilar from canadian singer Loreena McKennitt. Like that artist she includes some celtic folk and even gospel influences on her music too.

Having said that I must admit Kate French has a nice, warm voice, sometimes reminding me of Kate Bush (timbre, not style). Most of the tunes are soft and warm, with nice etherial keyboards, a little guitar here and there, few percussive effects and no bass. The only exception is the surprising rocking My Time Has Come, but it the drums were so badly recorded they almost drown French´s voice. Clearly the mixing killed this track. Fortunatly the production, even if not ideal, works for most of the remaining songs.

Unlike Ivan Melgar pointed out on her PA bio notes, I found nothing pop on The Other Side: the majority of the songs have no hooks, no beat and, most of all, no radio friendly stuff one should expect from a pop record.

Conclusion: a nice CD, just don´t expect to find anything really prog on it. But if you like good, warm and tender female singing, with some ambient/celtic/new age instrumentation, this is a good pick.